


Give from the heart

by Ephemera_pop (Alex_Draven)



Category: Popslash
Genre: M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Secret Santa, mtyg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-25
Updated: 2015-12-25
Packaged: 2018-10-19 08:50:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10636464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alex_Draven/pseuds/Ephemera_pop
Summary: Given their conversation in the car home, waking up the morning after Lance’s screening party to find Joey staring at him thoughtfully, and then saying "All these weddings - it makes you think, doesn't it?" was kind of paranoia inducing."What?" JC asked, blinking himself awake. Maybe they made Joey think about reality tv shows or hiring models to throw rose petals at him or something. JC could hope."You know: weddings. Nick, and Lance, and Brian's vow renewal ceremony, all in a year. And Katie and Linda's, and ...""But what do they make you think?" JC interrupted, summoning up unusual amounts of coherence for first thing in the morning in a desperate attempt to head Joey off before he started listing everyone he knew who'd got married or done something marriage related in the last two years."Maybe we should do something like that. Renew our vows, or something."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for NoPseud as part of Make the Yuletide Gay, 2015. Original URL: http://www.maketheyuletidegay.org/appthena.do?o.action=view_story&o.key=352

“You know, sometimes I gotta wonder how well my so-called friends really know me.”

“Huh?” Joey asked, looking over at him with a frown. It was the night after the private screening of the tv show of Lance’s wedding, and Joey and JC were driving back home from the airport.

“I was always going to sing at Lance’s wedding!” JC said, exasperated. “I mean, hands down, no question. Even way back when he was trying to convince himself he’d be marrying a woman, he knew I would sing for him.”

“And thank God he didn’t have to,” Joey said. “But what makes you think your friends don’t know you?”

“Because how many people today felt like they needed to say something - come on, Joe, isn’t it obvious? Lance had to go and get married on television. And I totally understand why, and I’m not saying it was wrong because you know, there should be more representation, and I’m cool with that, it’s just, huh.”

“It’s just that you’re kind of wary of the whole great big institution of marriage in a who wants to live in an institution anyway kind of way?”

“I’m totally cool with weddings,” JC said, irritated. “Having a great big party to celebrate loving someone is—it’s great. It was just, I ended up doing his song in front of the cameras. That was the bit that he had to talk me into, and everyone was making out like it was getting me sing for them that was the big deal. Do they not remember all the other times?”

“I do,” Joey said, and then shrugged. “Who even knows about some of them, though.”

OK, so almost no one knew — because Justin had wanted it that way — that JC had written and recorded a song for Justin's wedding, and then sent copies to the groom, the bride, Lynn, and two of the djs, to be sure that he got it. And at AJ’s—maybe people didn't remember the swing covers set he and Robbie had done, maybe it had been lost amidst the general mayhem of professional musicians moving from performance to karaoke to Rock Band, which was what most people seemed to remember about AJ's reception. But approximately one hundred and twelve percent of people Chris knew had seen him sing for Chris and Karly - and Chris knew a lot of people.

Almost as many as Joey and Kelly, although that wedding song had been many years earlier, and JC could understand people forgetting about his short song, what with all the razzmatazz and fairground insanity that the reception had piled on. He never would, though. Singing his blessing to two of his lovers, hours after hearing them promise in front of God and everyone that they were a family now, the two of them and Bri. That hadn’t been the first time JC had sung at a wedding, or the last, but it had been the hardest.

JC remembered about a hundred conversations with Joey about marriage, about promises, about being faithful: skin to skin in bus bunks and hotel rooms and in the sticky Florida heat. He remembered the long months of Kelly’s first pregnancy, how Joey had been scared out of his wits that something would go wrong. And, oh, he remembered how they’d talked before the first time Joey proposed, and then when Kelly had turned him down with wise, sweet, kisses and told him 'not yet'. They hadn’t talked so much before the second proposal, though - the one where she'd said ‘about time’, and started planning a ginormous party - and maybe that was where things had gone wrong?

The month before the wedding, Kelly had invited JC to sing for them, with a chaste kiss on the lips, before she went away and left JC and Joey alone for four days, during which time they did almost everything together except talk about the future, which felt, as JC recalled, like a very gentle kind of goodbye. The kind of gentle that’s like someone pulling a band-aid off in excruciating fractions of an inch, but still, he’d thought it felt like Joey and Kelly trying to be gentle with him.

Nearly four months later, Joey had literally shaken him by the shoulders and demanded to know when, in the whole time JC had known him, he - Joey - had ever been subtle or gentle or that kind of completely selfish dick, and Kelly had told him that he was an idiot, but he was their idiot, and not so much of an idiot as Joey was, and things had gone back to the crazy kind of normal which was them, but those months had kind of sucked absolutely, and they, and the wedding itself, was still seared into his memory.

*****

Given their conversation in the car home, waking up the morning after Lance’s screening party to find Joey staring at him thoughtfully, and then saying "All these weddings - it makes you think, doesn't it?" was kind of paranoia inducing.

"What?" JC asked, blinking himself awake. Maybe they made Joey think about reality tv shows or hiring models to throw rose petals at him or something. JC could hope.

"You know: weddings. Nick, and Lance, and Brian's vow renewal ceremony, all in a year. And Katie and Linda's, and ..."

"But what do they make you think?" JC interrupted, summoning up unusual amounts of coherence for first thing in the morning in a desperate attempt to head Joey off before he started listing everyone he knew who'd got married or done something marriage related in the last two years.

"Maybe we should do something like that. Renew our vows, or something."

JC closed his eyes again. This wasn't a conversation he wanted to have at all, let alone naked, before coffee, and when Kelly was out of town. Which 'we'? was the question he really wanted to ask, but he wasn't sure if any of the possible answers would be good ones. If "we" was Joey-and-Kelly, that would be one flavour of bad, but if it was Joey-and-Kelly-and-JC, that would also be kind of ...

"Well, not really renew, I guess, if we want to do a do-over and get things right this time," Joey continued. "Vows for all of us this time - the promises we actually make to each other..."

JC's heart tried to simultaneously cringe and grow three sizes, with an effect not entirely unlike severe indigestion.

"I have to go pee," JC announced abruptly, and wriggled away across the bed. He escaped into the master bath, and closed the door, and didn’t come back out until he could hear Kloey chattering away to her dad.

*****

It was traditional for the three of them to get together for dinner, just the adults, when one of them got back from a trip. They all did so much travelling that this sort of loose pattern worked out better than any attempt at a regular schedule of Tuesday nights this, Thursday nights that, and JC liked how the pattern kept things working but didn’t feel like a straight jacket of expectation. So, JC didn’t think anything of it when he got back from LA to an empty house, and a message from Kelly to tell him him that Bri was staying over at a friends house, and she was just dropping Kloey off at her Nonna’s.

He didn’t suspect anything when Joey vanished into the kitchen when JC got out of the shower, leaving him to top up Kelly’s wine glass, and the two of them to slow dance on the deck. After a stressful, hectic trip to the West coast a little sweetness and romance was like sinking into a perfect bubble bath.

He didn’t, in fact, suspect anything until Joey set dinner on the table and came to usher them in, and even then it took a little while.

Dinner looked delicious - smelled delicious, too - but it wasn’t Joey’s typical hearty family fare. For a start it was fish, which JC loved, but the girls weren’t keen on, and also it was elegant individual fillets with a fancy crusted topping, with a bed of green-flecked quinoa and elegantly julienned veggies alongside, rather than a tray bake or a one-pot supper. Ginger, citrus, and a hint of cumin perfumed the air when JC’s fork broke the crust, delicate fish flaking underneath, and Joey came back in from the kitchen with a bottle of sparkling water in one hand, and a bowl of lime wedges in the other. In other words, in a family where food was love, Joey had planned a menu just for JC.

JC’s mouth had been watering, but as soon as he realised, his stomach twisted. The girls away, the low lights, the labour of love on the table - JC had a horrible feeling that either this was going to end with some really kinky sex, or they were setting him up for a Conversation, and he wasn’t sure that he liked the odds.

In the end, he was the one to bring it up, when their plates were empty but Joey hadn’t got as far as clearing them away and bringing out the ginger cream mousses he was telling them about.

“Do we need to talk?” JC blurted out, interrupting Joey’s description of how it had taken him multiple attempts to get the mousse to set without separating.

“I mean,” JC looked between them and shrugged, gesturing at the table. “You’ve pulled out all the stops to romance me, but no one’s, you know, doing any romancing at this point, and normally, when you’re going to double-team me, there would be more…” JC trailed off. Kelly was trying to hide her smile behind one hand, and Joey was looking between Kelly and JC like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Kelly cracked, and started to chuckle. “I’m sorry. I told Joey you weren’t going to fall for it, but you know what he’s like about big gestures.”

JC found himself mirroring Kelly’s smile at Joey’s outraged face.

“What’s wrong with wanting our lover to know that he’s loved?” Joey protested.

“I do,” JC reached over and grabbed one of Joey’s hands, giving it a squeeze. “I really do, but if you were trying to seduce me you could have skipped straight to the blow jobs, and Kelly’s pretty much admitted that you two planned this ahead of time, so…”

“Okay!” Joey deflated for a moment. “Hold on.”

He vanished back into the kitchen. JC turned to frown at Kelly, who shrugged, before she pushed her chair back and came around the table to drape herself over JC’s shoulders, wrapping her arms over his chest. She kissed his neck, just behind his ear.

“You know I adore you, right? It’s nothing bad, I promise,” she whispered.

The second phrase didn’t exactly put JC’s mind at rest, but he could reply honestly enough to the first bit.

“Love you, too” he said back, lifting his face for another kiss before Joey came back. If they could just stick to the kissing and the touching… Kelly’s lips were soft, their kiss deepening despite the awkward angle, and JC closed his eyes and surrendered himself to it.

It was Kelly who pulled back, and when JC looked round, there was Joey, on his knees, one hand on Kelly’s thigh.

“Joshua Scott Chasez, will you marry us?”

JC lent over, and took Joey’s face by the chin, holding him still, staring into those beautiful brown eyes. He kissed Joey, soft, and intense, trying to express everything he was feeling, and then he said, “No.”

*****

They talked for hours, slept on it - all three of them wrapped around each other - and talked some more, taken a break from talking, and then come back to it over days and days, until, finally they hit on an idea that would work for all of them. And now it was September, they were in New York, and it was time to follow through on their plan.

JC fingered the collar of his tuxedo, made sure that the silk of his bow tie was lying smooth under his finger tips, and took a deep breath. He wasn’t normally nervous about singing, but tonight was … well, he wasn’t nervous about performing, per se, more what he was singing and who with, and why.

“You ready?” Joey’s hand was warm and heavy on his shoulder, even through the padding of his jacket.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” JC replied with a smile, and turned into the embrace Joey was offering. “How about you?”

“You know I get squeaky when I’m trying not to cry, Chasez. This is going to sound terrible, but yes, I am very, very, ready.”

“Good,” came Kelly’s voice from behind them. “Because the longer we make our guests wait, the greater the odds that one of the kids is going to do something crazy and chaos is going to resume. Shall we?”

Kelly looked stunning, with her new auburn hair and her glamorous, floor length evening gown, holding out both her elbows for her men. JC relinquished Joey, and they took their places at her side.

“Let’s do this thing!” Joey whooped, and then smiled sheepishly at both of them, and they both grinned back at him.

The house they’d rented for the trip had an honest to goodness stage, built across one end of the den. Apparently the owners liked to throw epic football parties with live bands when the Giants played at home, but it made the place perfect for this event. They’d had the living room set up for a formal meal: black tie for everyone, including the children, and the place decorated under the pretext of an anniversary celebration, with a colour palette of steel and brass, for eleven and twenty-one years respectively. They were betting that no one would think anything of the coordinating steel and brass watches the three of them were all wearing, commemorating a fifteenth anniversary: theirs.

Of course, it was totally over the top for what wasn’t even a round-number anniversary, but their family and closest friends had no problem believing that Joey would rather throw a big party for the man of steel than the ten-year tin man, and what was the point of being a Fatone, Joe Sr had reminded them when he got his invitation, if you didn’t do things totally over the top sometimes?

So it was in that frame of mind that JC took to the stage, walking Kelly to her seat at the grand piano, and then taking his place with Joey in front of it.

They started with a classic - Sinatra's “My way” - which got cheers from the parents, and made Bri bury her face in her hands in pure teenage embarrassment, as her parents camped up their roles as lounge singer and pianist. JC provided the harmonies at first, before taking over the lead vocals for “Can't Take My Eyes Off You”, which merged into a medley of Frankie Valli hits, which JC had been working on for months, so that it fed seamlessly into the song they’d been writing together.

“You give from the heart with no end in sight. You are my heart, let our dreams take flight.”

As the chorus came back around again, first Joey joined his voice with JC’s, their harmonies locking back together like there had never been a hiatus, and then Kelly’s warm alto voice chimed in as well.

JC turned his back on their audience for a moment, looking first at Kelly and then at Joey.

It was probably for the best that they’d agreed that JC would sing the verses because Joey’s voice was starting to wobble, decades of professionalism wavering under heightened emotions, but by the final repeat of the chorus, the three of them came back in together, and their voices meshed perfectly, and even though they’d been rehearsing for weeks now, singing those words, parts of Kelly’s wedding vows re-cast for the three of them: singing them together, in front of these people - it raised all the hairs on JC’s neck, and he felt a thousand feet tall.

*****

The house they’d rented also had an enormous master bedroom, with a center-piece bed that must have been designed specially for the owners, because it was bigger than their bed at home, and that was already off the ready-made charts. Not that JC would have minded curling up in a smaller bed together, but he could also appreciate having the space for them all to sprawl out in their sleep, especially when he woke up early. The room had heavy drapes over the floor to ceiling windows, but the thin morning sun filtered in around the edges. The house was quiet - JC could hear Kelly’s deep breathing on one side of him, Joey’s quiet snoring on the other, but no voices or footsteps from the rest of the house. JC wasn’t sure what the time was, but he didn’t want to know badly enough to disturb the sense of peace and contentment he’d woken up with.

Yesterday had been all about the hitting the high notes - singing together; leaving the den together to the toasts of their friends with nothing to hide or explain; peeling each other out of formal wear like unwrapping gifts; mind-emptying, screaming orgasms for all: falling asleep amongst laughter and love.

This morning, though, was something else. He felt warm, and heavy. Loose limbed. A little dreamy, still, floating in that space between sleep and being all the way awake, and just - happy. Completely at one with the world. Nowhere he’d rather be, no one he’d rather be with, no way he’d rather be with them.

JC shifted a little, stretched so that his foot brushed against Kelly’s leg, his shoulder nestled against Joey’s side. Joey’s breath hitched, and his head rolled towards JC, but he didn’t wake up more than that; his breathing soon returning to the long, slow breaths of sleep. JC lay there, his breathing synchronising with his lovers’, just drifting in the moment.

He didn’t make a conscious decision to start brushing his fingertips over his skin where his hands lay - one on his chest, one against his thigh - but the slow, smooth movement felt good. After a while, with his warm, heavy, happy feeling starting to pool in his groin, it was a small thing to make the sweep of his fingers a little larger, starting to catch his nipple on each circuit, roll his thigh open some so the back of his fingers teased at his balls. Kelly’s calf was smooth and warm under his foot, and when he turned his head, JC could smell Joey’s skin. JC rolled into Joey’s side a fraction, not wanting to resist the temptation to brush kisses on the soft skin over Joey’s ribs. The move took JC’s nipple out of reach of his fingers, but let his thickening cock fall into his other hand, JC’s slow, sensuous stroking gaining in speed and intent.

JC drew in a sharp breath as Kelly’s hand settled on his waist, and the bed dipped as she pressed up behind him, lips against the back of his neck.

“Mmmm,” he murmured as her hand drifted up and found his nipple.

“Mmmh,” he moaned as Joey woke up and urged JC’s head up, so they could kiss. The angle was awkward, but the kiss was anything but: a lifetime of love and friendship and lust expressed in the way that they came together.

JC’s hand kept moving, building up pace, as Joey’s kisses made his breathing hitch and Kelly’s hands on his skin, and her hot breath on his neck, spread his arousal through his whole body, skin tingling, touches coming in so many places that he was losing track of which of his lovers it was who was scratching their nails over his hip bone, whose fingers were buried in his hair. From the angle, it had to be Kelly whose hand wrapped around his own on his dick, making him moan into Joey’s mouth, but he couldn’t have said who it was who drew their fingers over his tightening balls, which sent him over the edge.

He came down from his orgasm pressed close between his lovers, gentling touches on all sides, his to them and them to him, and then the bed shifted under him as Joey leaned up on one arm to lean over him to kiss Kelly before coming back to kiss JC again.

“Mmmm - good morning” Joey said with a smile.

“Very good,” Kelly answered, and JC could hear her smile without looking.

“Very, very good,” JC added, with a grin of his own.

***** fin *****


End file.
